Career as Teacher

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Is it 'bad' to want to be an ST? I'm in my 5th year, got promoted to GEO4 last year. My RO has been asking me to consider changing my mind about my chosen track, which is ST. She suggested that I go for leadership track instead, but I've no interest there. And when I asked her about ST-ship, she would talk about KP-ship.

How can I flourish as an ST? How to get started even? Is there a minimum number of years of service you must hit before being starting your ST-ship? The two STs in my school are from different department and not very friendly so I don't want to ask them. TIA

Two things to think about:

1. no it's not bad to aspire to be ST. However, it doesn't seem like your RO is equipped with the right mindset to groom a young teacher into an ST. If you have an opportunity to do so in a sensitive manner, speak to an SL about your aspirations (but don't criticise your RO during such conversations; just say that you are looking for advice about your aspirations).

2. as an ST you'll need to work together with other STs from your school, cluster, zone and subject chapter. If you don't work well with the other STs in your school, you may need a different environment, or at least to improve your working relationship with them.

Love to be guiding kids can be in many forms. Don’t just focus on YOUR definition and ostracize others? Some may prefer to lead people who work with kids? The possibilities are endless and I urge u to take a broader view of things

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Its not bad to go on the ST track. What I find fascinating are people who claim that they entered teaching because they love to educate kids and guide them in their formative years. Yet these people are gunning for leadership track where the higher you go, the less direct interaction that you have with students.

Really makes me wonder whether the people here who keep harping on their passion for teaching are indeed genuine.

Those who had received your FLP invite, how old were you and how many years in service did you have under your belt? Is there a specific cep we need to attain as non-scholars? For example P6 (VP)?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Those who had received your FLP invite, how old were you and how many years in service did you have under your belt? Is there a specific cep we need to attain as non-scholars? For example P6 (VP)?

received mine at end of year 6. Early 30s. Not sure about my own CEP, but back in school I had one JH on FLP and their CEP was higher than the example you gave.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

That's the point. If you're just average, why would you expect to zoom up the salary scale at the same rate as better performers. People here like to keep banging on about private sector and all that. Just remind yourself what happens to average/below average ppl when they hit their 40s on pte sector k.

Was just reading this forum for fun and chances upon this comment. The last line really resonates with me. Just look at how many grab drivers were formally pmets. It's just sad.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Love to be guiding kids can be in many forms. Don’t just focus on YOUR definition and ostracize others? Some may prefer to lead people who work with kids? The possibilities are endless and I urge u to take a broader view of things

Its like if someone claims that they like to code but keep talking about how they want to move to a project managerial role where they do less coding, I would be just as skeptical.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Was just reading this forum for fun and chances upon this comment. The last line really resonates with me. Just look at how many grab drivers were formally pmets. It's just sad.

Yup teachers are people who are the least exposed to the outside working world. Hence they focus on what they see as the wonderful things in the world out there. In some ways, teachers are just as naive as the kids the teach.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Yup teachers are people who are the least exposed to the outside working world. Hence they focus on what they see as the wonderful things in the world out there. In some ways, teachers are just as naive as the kids the teach.

Honestly, a lot of problems can be alleviated substantially by increasing teacher headcount a little bit.. NOT mass hiring like in the late '00s, but just increasing a bit. There are enough good people queueing up to join. One of such problems is the lack of exposure to the outside world. Now, we have TWA+. TWA+ is a policy with good intent.

But how many teachers can a school afford to let go on long leave? Long enough leave to really learn something new and learn how to bring it back to enrich their students' learning with it? One or two teachers on long leave in a department is already enough to bring the timetable to its knees. We have too little buffer capacity.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Yup teachers are people who are the least exposed to the outside working world. Hence they focus on what they see as the wonderful things in the world out there. In some ways, teachers are just as naive as the kids the teach.

Hence as a HOT teacher, I am just grateful that we are insulated from the outside world. Yes, maybe bonus gone...but hey, during the pandemic, we didn't get pay cuts like the private sector did. Yes, the superscale people got paycuts...but still...we are pretty much insulated.

People from the private sector that i spoke to, are usually worried that a war or some disaster somewhere can affect supply/demand/supply chain and in turn affect their rice bowl. For teachers, we wake up every day and think about our school/classroom. Not that it is less stressful, but at least we are almost guaranteed to bring home the dough, such that most of us don't think too much about money or when salary is coming...because we know it IS coming/here.

There is much to be thankful for even as a HOT teacher...IF your work environment doesn't drive you mad.

I mean just look at this:

s://.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/lucasfilm-shut-operations-singapore-studio-animation-visual-effects-disney-3700061

Out of nowhere, their rice bowl gone. And this isn't uncommon. Foreign banks do this to locals all the time. They decide SG isn't profitable, they pack up and leave. Shutting down the entire bank/department/team etc. As someone previously from the private sector working with private bankers/traders from these foreign banks...i can tell you they are constantly under pressure, and constantly worried. Hell, even my boss back then was constantly worried that she would be asked to leave if she doesn't deliver in a quarter or 2.